“When the plane took off from Rockcliffe (airport), it was flying for about an hour-and-a-half and the pilot received a message that he must land his plane immediately and that the RCMP wanted to question him,” PSAC’s Larry Rousseau said.

According to Rousseau, the RCMP told the pilot the banner could constitute hate speech and a threat to Harper’s security, but the union - which paid $1,000 per hour for the three-hour flight - disagrees. “We don’t see criticism of the prime minister as being hate speech, we see it as being freedom of speech,” Rousseau said.

Global news is reporting that the RCMP denies it is responsible for making such a call and suggests Nav Canada - which oversees Canada’s skies - could be behind it. But Nav Canada said in an email Monday that it was not their call to bring the plane down.

“We have looked into this and can confirm that there was no instruction from NAV CANADA air traffic control to land that plane,” said Nav Canada’s media relations manager Ron Singer. “Please check directly with the RCMP. Nav Canada has no further comment.”

Huffington Post is reporting the union said authorities ordered the aircraft to land because it had entered Parliament Hill's restricted airspace, although the pilot reportedly knew about the restrictions and steered clear of them, a claim Nav Canada confirmed, according to Canada.com.

We saw the same banner fly over the Gay Pride Parade. Did it fly over restricted air space or not? Bringing down a plane for a political message is bad enough but lying about it is even worse. This needs to be followed up on because it’s illegal. It is a violation of the charter of rights and is another example of how Stephen Harper is eroding our rights as we speak.

Abe Lincoln was a good guy. Stephen Harper is not. He's brought in a new era of robocalls, firing whistleblowers, stalking people's facebook accounts, warrantless Internet surveillance, torture, removing BC's say on a pipeline through their province. Now he's even banning free speech. What a very sad legacy.

Well, if one doesn't consider Harper good, which prime minster would be - assuming one is implying that we have had one? That PIG Paul Martin? The Scoundrel Chrétien ? The full blown pos thief Mulroney? Or perhaps that f**king asshole Trudeau who started so much sh*t in this country?...Please enlighten me.

How about Lester Pearson? I personally liked Trudeau because I like the Charter of Rights although I've never voted Liberal. I liked Chretien as a human being. Mulroney as you say was a complete scoundrel and Stephen Harper is rapidly filing those shoes. I liked Preston Manning. Harper is doing a lot of really bizarre things that really concern me. What he does is the exact opposite of what the conservative party stand for. The robocalls, the surveillance, the firing of whistleblowers. His is a bizarre new world I rather not be a part of.

Trudeau. Well, he brought in bilingualism, which is one of the worse things he did. I'm here in Ottawa, and it's sicking to see, that in reality, the Quebecois are running this country. I consider this part of the fallout from above. I never have and never will vote Liberal.

Good to see the BC RCMP are on those bikers' asses. I lived in BC in the 90's, and it appeared to me then that the cops didn't bother them much. I had assumed it was because the BC Hells Angels chapters are the richest in the world.

Paul Porter got two years? Thanks for the update. Yes things here in BC have recently improved. Switzerland has three official languages. Nobody likes spoilt brats but I personally don't have a problem with bilingualism.

No one in B.C. or any other province west of Manitoba needed to be forced to take French in school to make the Quebecois happy or have everything in the grocery store English on one side French on the other just to placate all the French Separatists in Quebec.

"Preservation of the French Language", more politically correct BS. What the rest of Canada should have done was called their bluff and allowed them to leave Confederation. The rest of Canada, certainly Western Canada would have been better off and healthier for it, the weight of parliamentary representation between Quebec and Ontario that holds the western provinces in bondage would not exist.

PET was a POS who loathed Canada's Anglo heritage. A Marxist lawyer who's rock star groupie wife fucked around on him openly. What a joke. Certainly no one to look up to.

Wolfe and Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Wolfe won the battle and lost the war, 2 centuries later you have the descendents of all the Frenchmen that Wolfe didn't force to return to France giving the descendents of the victors a hard time. Listen, no one gets along with the French. The English and the French in Europe don't get along, why would it be different in Canada. Jeez, half of the Belgians speak French and THEY don't get along with the French.....

The Swiss have a national identity that surpasses language. The same cannot be said of Canada. No one says "I am a German Swiss" or "I am an Italian Swiss".

Wow, I didn't mind taking French in high School. I just wish I was better at it. You can take Spanish if you prefer. Learning a second language is a good thing. All the kitchen terms are in French. The French wrote the book on the culinary arts, twice. First they wrote it with Escoffier's Cuisine Classique then they rewrote it with Nouvelle Cuisine. Life would be diminished without the French culinary arts.